


Consort of the Under-Empire

by ColourOuttaSpace



Series: Stories of Del'Kora [3]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Breeding, F/F, F/M, Multi, Oral Sex, Rough Sex, Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:47:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27504805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ColourOuttaSpace/pseuds/ColourOuttaSpace
Summary: Belldavi Jodele, daughter to a great merchant house in the Kingdom of Lunnak, wants nothing more than to live her life with Susanna Templemount, princess of the royal family. However, their parents seek different futures for their daughters... and an as of yet undiscovered power has more sinister uses for the lovers. In short order, Belldavi will find herself as a concubine of a long lost branch of her race, and used accordingly.
Series: Stories of Del'Kora [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2010139





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This applies to the entire work... I am attempting to write this as part of NanoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Not seeing how busy I would be, the goal is now to have the thing written by the end of the year (2020) This is by no means the final version. Please, if you have feedback, let me know. I'll take note of it when I edit it later.
> 
> Thank you

Belldavi stirred from her slumber, smiling. The sleeping furs were heavy but soft, keeping her comfortably toasty and the frigid mountain air at bay. Her long elven ears could hear the sounds of the hearth crackling its last puffs of warmth into the stone dormitory. Her long, slender arm reached out on the fur pallet to embrace her lover.

It was cold there. Empty. Belldavi pulled back, opened her eyes. Sure enough, her partner had disappeared. The young elf struggled to brush away the fog of sleep to explain why her bed was down an occupant. Then, she remembered why they were actually here. Soon enough, she could hear it, too. Belldavi’s ears perked as she heard the sound of metal striking metal in the distance, and she slowly turned her head to the hide-covered window. Thin trails of sunlight struggled to enter the stone room from the edges of the hide, adding what little illumination there was from the fading hearth to barely keep total darkness at bay. Still, it was enough light for Belldavi to reluctantly remove herself from the warmth of the furs, wrap one around her slender, naked shoulders, and walk on the cold floor to the window. When she got there, she pulled the hide back to see the source of the clanging metal.

The frigid air rushed in to greet Belldavi, and she pulled the fur tighter in response, burying her mouth and nose in it. Glancing around, she saw the low stone houses of the monks set into the crag of the mountain, snow and ice draped like thick blankets over their roofs. Trails of smoke came out of their squat chimneys, drifting up into the clear blue sky. A stone wall stood proudly from across Belldavi’s window several dozen feet away. A small detachment of men and women stood watch on that wall, dressed in thick robes and wielding long spears. Between Belldavi and the wall was a square courtyard, cleared of snow to reveal the bare rock underneath. There, a group of men and women dressed like the guards on the wall watched two combatants spar with the curved blades from the isolated region of Zhya.

One was an older woman. Half-elf. Her long, white hair was tied tight behind her head in a bun, letting her face display the years of harsh weather and training she had endured to this point. Her body was slim, taut, ready to spring into action at any moment. She forwent the warm robes of her compatriots, instead stripping down to a loose long sleeved shirt and pants. Her feet padded the stone with bare heels as she began to pace in front of her opponent. Belldavi looked to the other combatant… and bit her lip in anticipation.

There she was. Susanna. Her lover. Crouched in her ready position, blade outfront to counter whatever strike the older woman swung at her. Despite her crouch, Susanna towered over the others in her stature. The greenskinned woman wore only her chest wraps and the baggy pants of the monastery, her bare feet silently padding on the stone ground as well. Even this far in the pale mountain light, Belldavi could see the sweat on the half-orc’s face, rolling down her forest green shoulders and through the cuts of her thick, muscled arms. As the woman paced in circles, the elf could see her abs, hard enough to grind meat on. The half-orc’s coarse black hair was also tied into a bun behind her, but messier, with zero sense of fashion and only the need for practicality.

Belldavi watched the sword womens' dance with a licentious gaze. Godkeeper’s blessings, how she loved to see her half-orc lover spar. Susanna incorporated a grace that was not obvious based on her burly frame, but used that frame to her advantage when needed. It was a quick, brutal improvisational art that the elf loved to watch unfold everytime. That, and the aftermath. Her lover tried to hide it in public, but the orcish Templemount bloodline had its effect on her everytime she sparred. The rush of combat made Susanna want something more… something Belldavi was always willing to provide.

Breakfast was going to be very exciting this morning. She couldn’t wait.

The half-orc bared her fangs a split second before lunging at the older half-elf. The curved blade swished through the air as the snow-haired fighter dodged to the right, stepping in to stab in the opening. But Belldavi’s champion quickly twisted her body, deflecting the sword point with the flat of her own blade. The greenskinned warrior tried to weave her blade underneath her opponents, catching it at the hilt to disarm her, but the master saw the ploy, using the momentum of her opponent’s weave to spin in a rapid circle, lowering herself to swipe at the half-orc’s legs.

Susanna quickly jumped forward and above the older woman, tumbling smoothly into guard position facing the half-elf. She responded in kind, gracefully recovering from her spin to bring her weapon to bare on her opponent. Both barely had time to fully regain their poise when the half-orc charged, bringing her sword from below and to the right. It was a wild swing, meant to keep her opponent unbalanced.

She wasn’t a master for nothing, of course. The old woman crouched below the swing, then launched herself towards Susanna, barreling into her stomach with the force of a boulder. The half-orc staggered back from the blow, using one hand to hold her stomach, the other to wield the blade in a desperate attempt to defend herself. But the old woman didn’t hesitate. With a follow-up sweep, she knocked her unsteady opponent’s feet from under her. Susanna hit the cold ground with a thud, barely keeping her hand on the hilt of her blade. When she tried to spring up, the tip of the half-elven master’s blade pointed menacingly at her face.

Belldavi grimaced underneath her fur covering. Suzie hated to lose. She knew it was part of becoming a better fighter, but it made her so irritable at times. As the half-orc growled her concession, letting go of her blade, the elf knew at that moment: she was going to need some extra love and care this morning.

She chuckled as she pulled the hide covering back over the window. As if she wasn’t willing to provide it.

-

“Godkeeper damn it all, she’s fast.”

Belldavi looked up from the fireplace to see Susanna walking briskly into their room. She had been able to poke the dying embers awake, placing more wood to stoke the fire. Now the dried logs began to crackle with life, giving warmth and light to the cold and dark dormitory. Belldavi had dressed herself in a soft woolen robe. Simple enough to wear, warm enough to stave off the ice that seemed to permeate the air.

The frigid temperatures never seemed to bother her Suzie, however. She had yet to put on her own monastery robe that was draped over her arm, letting her sweaty body glisten in the crackling fire light. Amun-Riiv be praised, how she glistened, every crevice of her muscled frame outlined in shining greens and oranges. Belldavi bit her lip as she stood up from the fireplace.

“Well, love,” the elf replied. “She is a master after all. You’d think you’d be able to beat her in one try?”

“No, of course not,” Susanna answered, frowning. Her small tusks protruded out a bit more, and she looked away from Belldavi. She tossed her robe and sword into the corner with a muffled clatter.

“By the gods, Suzie,” Belldavi chuckled, raising her eyebrows. “Are you pouting?”

The half-orc glanced back at the elf with annoyance. “No, I’m not,” she grunted. “I’m just… trying to think where I went wrong.”

“Well, I think you let your orc get the better of you,” Belldavi said. The half-orc woman rolled her eyes.

“You’re really annoying, you know that?”

“Maybe,” Belldavi smirked. She walked closer to Susanna, hands held behind her back, playfully lifting her breasts up. “But that didn’t stop you from bringing me along, did it?”

Susanna raised an eyebrow at the elf’s playful nature. “No, it didn’t. You must be a witch. How else would I be convinced to bring you to the monastery?”

Belldavi smiled, biting her lower lip. Then, with a tug and a gentle shrug, the woolen gown slipped past her shoulders and onto the floor, revealing the lithe frame of the elven scion. She squeezed her arms in to accentuate her small yet perky breasts, grinning flirtatiously. Her thin hips swayed from side to side with anticipation. Her nipples hardened quickly with the cold air, and she raised her chest to show her lover she was ready.

“Well, your Royal Highness,” Belldavi said. “I can think of at least two reasons. Maybe three.”

Susanna’s eyes widened, her nostrils flared. The elf knew what that meant. The hunt was on.

The half-orc didn’t respond, only stepped forward and reached out, bringing the elf close to her and lifting Belldavi up to latch onto her waist. The smaller elf was glad she wouldn’t need to stand on tip toes to kiss her lover. Instead, she allowed herself to drink in the wild half-orc’s scent. She still had the sweat of the battle on her, smelled of the need to conquer. Belldavi tasted Suzie with vigor, wanting nothing else but her lips, her tongue, her gently scraping tusks against her cheeks.

Susanna held the elf firmly with her left hand on her upper back, pressing her tightly to the chest wraps she had yet to shed. Her right hand gently caressed Belldavi’s firm ass, cupping it with her large hand and squeezing every once in a while. The elf barely noticed the hand leave it’s place on her buttocks until she felt a sharp slap come across it. She yelped in surprise as she kissed Suzie, barely registering the pain until she felt another spank come across her ass. The elf broke lips with her lover to cry out properly.

“Oh, gods,” she sighed.

“Yeah?” Susanna growled.

Belldavi looked into the half-orc’s hungry, mischievous eyes.

“Yes, Suzie. I love it when you spank m-AAAH!”

Another spank. Another rush of pain that dissolved into a lasting pleasure.

“Oh, your Highness,” the elf whimpered. “Let me cheer you up. Let me make you forget your loss. You’ve already won me, after all.”

The elf felt Susanna’s hands shift. One hand cupped her ass and supported her. Her left hand drifted up to Belldavi’s long, blonde hair and pulled. Her head jerked back hard, and she moaned again at the pain. Her moans changed to gasps as she felt the brush of her lover’s tusks on her breasts, then lips nibbling, licking, sucking on her nipples. Gods above, she was so sensitive, and Suzie’s tongue felt so good! Belldavi reached out and cupped the back of Susanna’s head, forcing her to stay on her tit.

“Yes, Suzie. Oh, fuck!” she yelped, letting the ecstasy drown and dissolve her thoughts into an inconsequential paste. Finally, no more lessons of merchant stocks and shipping rates and bribing customs filling her head. Nothing but her lover and the pleasure she brought her.

Suddenly, Belldavi felt herself flying, then landing in a pile of furs. Susanna had dropped her onto the fur pallet that was their bed, and was frantically removing her wraps and baggy pants. Soon enough, a naked half-orc in peak physical form was lunging towards Belldavi again, sliding her strong forearms behind her elven lover’s back to press her closer against her bare chest. To allow as much skin as possible to touch. Belldavi kissed Susanna hungrily, bathing in her strength and her warmth that rivaled that of the fireplace.

What a pleasant surprise when she felt a hand start sliding up her inner thigh. Without hesitation, the elf spread her legs, and was rewarded with experienced hands rubbing her soaking clit. Suzie knew every spot, knew every right motion to perform. Every rotation of those thick green fingers, she felt a shot of ecstasy shoot into her belly and settle in her core. It was maddening. She wanted to embrace the madness.

“Oh Gods, right there,” she whimpered. “Keep going, lover. Oh, fuck!”

Suzie let out a low growl as she moved her lips to start kissing Belldavi’s slender neck. She felt those tusks gently scrape her skin, the kisses planting little pockets of pleasure as she worked across the nape. Amun-Riiv, it was too much!

“Oh, fuck, I’m going to come! Make me come, please!”

Susanna smiled, letting out a menacing chuckle as her wrist went faster, her fingers pressed harder on the elf’s clitoris. With an involuntary scream, she came. Her legs and arms writhed on their own, trying to grip onto something to keep her from lifting into the air. She was exploding, flying into a blissful sky full of fur and green skin. The wave of ecstasy seemed to fill her from head to toe, and her heart pounded with the pace of a charging horse.

Susanna slowed her hand’s motion as Belldavi descended from the high. Belldavi looked into her lover’s eyes, then desperately kissed her in thanks. Gods, to have a lover that could take her to such heights. Amun-Riiv had truly blessed her.

“Enjoy yourself, lover?” Susanna asked in a soft voice.

Belldavi bit her lip and nodded in response.

“Good. My turn.”

With quick, certain motions, Susanna straightened and scooted herself up in the pile of furs, spreading her own legs to reveal a dripping pussy. Belldavi didn’t know exactly what she wanted, but she was eager to please. She turned and got up on hands and knees. As soon as she did, she felt Suzie’s strong hand lace its fingers through her hair and wrench her head over, causing her to scramble over furs and limbs. When the elf was able to look up, she saw her lover’s pussy directly in front of her.

“Tongue out, lover.”

Belldavi did as she was told, then felt her hair pulled forward. She followed until her tongue was pressed against her lover’s clitoris. Susanna tasted wonderful, and the elf began to slurp as much of her juices as she could. She went up and down, side to side, in circles. Whatever made her half-orc lover sigh with pleasure more. Belldavi was in for a greater surprise when she felt the hand in her hair move to rub the inside of her left ear. Gods above! She mewled pitifully into her lover as she tried to concentrate on her task, but her ears were so sensitive it made licking a herculean effort.

“Oh, yes, Bells,” Suzie sighed. Her hand quickly moved from the ear back to grabbing Belldavi’s head. “Oh, fuck yes. Keep going. I want to come all over you. Fucking eat me out.”

The elf doubled her efforts. Stuck out her tongue more. Wriggled her head faster. Tasted the half-orc with vigor. Susanna desperately clung to Belldavi’s head, pressing her against her clit with ravenous want. Fuck, she could barely breath. The elf sucked in a huge gulp through her nose, looked to see her lover’s chiseled face contorted as if she was about to explode herself.

She shortly did, growling in satisfaction as she dug her fingers into Belldavi’s head with uncontrolled ecstasy flowing through every vein. Her other hand flew out and clung to the furs, anchoring her to the earth as her soul flew into the direction of nirvana.

Finally, with a rumbling sigh of pleasure, her hand dropped from Belldavi’s head, and the elf gasped for air. The merchant scion took this time to kiss her Royal Highness’ inner thigh, then carefully crawled up to cradle her head in the half-orc’s shoulder. Suzie responded in turn by having her right arm cup her elven lover in her embrace, the left hand finding a loose fur and placing it on top of the pair of them. Both of them didn’t dare speak, merely letting each other pant as they caught their breaths.

“I wonder if the monks are angry you brought me here,” Belldavi finally said, breaking the silence.

Susanna chuckled. “Eh, fuck ‘em. I can still learn while I have you here.”

“I’m not a distraction?”

“No. Not while I’m out there on the courtyard.”

“Damn,” the elf smirked. “Sounds like I need to work harder, then.”

“Ha!” the half-orc laughed, turning to her side to see Belldavi’s face. “Maybe you do. I’m doing all the work here.”

“What?” Belldavi exclaimed. “Shut your mouth! I was trying to-”

Susanna stopped her protest with a kiss. It was a strong counterpoint, and the elf melted into it once again.


	2. Chapter 2

“A cuppa fer you, M’lady?”

Belldavi looked to her left and above the furs she had covered herself in to see an elderly woman making her way across the snow dusted stone courtyard with a steaming wooden mug in each hand. She smiled, warmed to see the darling woman wrapped in her thick woolen robe and hood. It was almost as if she knew exactly when to bring her some much needed broth. As the older woman waddled to Belldavi, she offered one of the mugs. The elf moved her furs out to take the proffered mug and held it close to her face.

“Thank you, Harijet,” Belldavi smiled as she smelled the steam. “I was just about to get one myself.”

“It be no trouble there, miss,” the elderly Harijet said. “I know ya be wantin’ to see the princess train here. Might as well take a gander m’self. Cookin’s done ‘til supper.”

Belldavi turned her gaze back to the stone courtyard. “Well, it’s not like she’s doing much at the moment.”

Harijet followed the elf’s gaze to see the half-orc princess barefoot, wearing her pants and wraps, squatting in a wide stance. Susanna’s arms were stretched out to their full length on either side. In each hand was a polished spherical stone, held aloft in her palms. Her back was ramrod straight. Her eyes front. Susanna was trying to appear calm, collected, but Belldavi knew pain in her lover’s face when she saw it. The elf lifted the mug to her lips and sipped, staring at the princess’ face to watch for any sign of forfeiting.

She wouldn’t forfeit, though. Not with her little elf watching. Belldavi smirked.

“By th’good graces,” Harijet exclaimed. “She’s been at this fer’n hour now, aye?”

“As I understand, yes,” she replied. “I came over not too long ago after breakfast. I wanted to boost her morale.”

“Well, yer bein’ a good friend then, m’lady,” Harijet chuckled, turning back to the warmth of her huts.

“Yes,” Belldavi whispered, glancing to Susanna. “Friend.”

Susanna looked back to the elf and managed an amused smile. It quickly returned to a pained grimace as she turned her concentration back to keeping the spheres aloft.

The wind burled and blew in suddenly, whisking up some of the snow on the ground and onto the figures standing there. The half-orc bared her teeth and concentrated on her exercise. Belldavi shivered and tried to bury herself deeper in the furs. Just as she nestled in, her ears piqued. Something was in that wind. A ringing that didn’t belong. She let her long ears out of the furs and listened carefully.

There. The high pitched, clear note of a horn being blown in the distance. A note that echoed against the mountain side despite the snow. Belldavi looked to the stone gate, where three watchful monks patrolled the battlements. They had turned their heads in the direction of the horn, and held their spears at the ready. One of them grabbed the horn hanging at their side, put it to their lips, and blew a two tone response, one night low, then one high. The horn in the distance soon answered with one note high, the following one low. The monks relaxed. Belldavi did as well. The musical exchange had translated to the two parties confirming whether they were friendly, and if the travelers could take shelter.

It was mostly formal, however… the elf recognized the tone of that horn, as the guards should have. She glanced to Susanna, who’s pained expression had an added hint of curious confusion to it. The half-orc finally let her arms down, placing the stones on the ground and walking to Belldavi.

“Why?” she panted, brows furrowed, eyes wide. “I thought I told them I’d be here for at least two months, it’s barely been two weeks. Why are they here now?”

“I’m not sure,” Belldavi replied, stepping closer to Susanna. “My father’s last letter didn’t mention anything about a royal party being sent this way. Not much escapes his ears, either.”

“No, not much does,” Susanna grunt as she began to rub her chin. “I guess we can meet them at the gates, see who’s come up to-”

WHACK!

“Ow! What the-” Susanna began before the collection of reeds that had smacked her shoulder without warning swiped again, snapping against the half-orc’s open palm. Belldavi jumped away to see Master Hidego brandishing her favorite tool for discipline. The tightly bound, thin elder bared a deep frown on her face.

“I said two hours!” she snapped in a clear tone. “You barely finished one.”

“Master, please, I- OW!”

“No!” Hidego barked as the thin bundle of reeds struck Susanna’s thigh. Belldavi buried her face into her furs to not show her giggling. “You lack focus! You must focus on the tasks given to you and nothing else. Two hours, starting over. Now!”

“Master Hidego, I have family coming-”

“I am well aware,” she cut in, coldly. “My ears work just as well if not better than your elf friend. While you are here, you are my student. You will do as I say.”

“But, Master-”

“Ah!”

The reeds swished through the air with a whistle, pointing to the stones. Susanna looked to both her master and to Belldavi. All the elf could do was shrug, barely holding her laughter in. The half-orc pursed her lips in frustration, but relented. Slowly, her green hands wrapped around the stones once more, lifting them parallel to the ground, her feet wide and knees bent in stance. Her angry face stared daggers into the ground. The elf gulped down another chuckle, then let out a stream of frosty air. Her lover would need extra attention tonight, she could tell.

“You.”

Belldavi shook herself and looked towards Hidego, only to see the sharp woman’s face mere inches from her own.

“Oh! Um, uh, yes Master Hidego?” Belldavi stammered, trying to stumble back. The monk’s eyes narrowed.

“You will stay away from her,” she murmured coldly. “You distract her too much.”  
“I’m, um,” the elf continued to stammer, “just trying to support her training, and I-”

“You detract from her training,” Hidego said, flatly. She turned towards the gate, reed and hands held behind her back. “The only time you can distract her is when she goes to bed.”

“I,” Belldavi uttered, then blushed. “I, um, I don’t know-”

“My ears work just as well as yours, elf. Probably better,” the master monk repeated, before quietly walking to the gate. Belldavi stared at the thin, tightly robed monk walk for several seconds… then felt blood rush to her face as she put it together. Oh, Dayereth curse her, how loud  _ was  _ she?! Did the entire building hear them? The entire camp?! Did all of these monks have hearing like hers? No, she had to be bluffing. Maybe she just took their arrival and figured it out… It’s not like this was the worst thing that could happen, and even then Hidego wouldn’t tell anyone that the princess of the royal family had a merchant’s daughter as a lover, that was beneath everyone’s notice. The royal line was spawned from a bastard, who cared about the members’ exploits! And her father…

Belldavi grimaced under her furs, burying herself as much as she could. Her father still didn’t know. Officially. He had his suspicions, probably. He was almost four centuries old, he wasn’t blind… but so far he hadn’t said anything. That probably meant he approved in some fashion. Or didn’t know. In either case, Belldavi could still keep Susanna all to herself. She glanced at her half-orc, struggling against the frigid wind in nought but her wraps and loose trousers. Her defiance, her spirit, her hidden grace… Belldavi couldn’t bear the thought of being forced to give her up. She sighed, taking in her lover, before turning to the gate. She could hear the clatter of hooves on rock just outside the wall.

The thick, semi-circle wooden doors began to open as several attendees pulled on the handles, the heavy hinges creaking in desperate calls for grease. Several monks and lay-persons had begun to gather to see the visitors, dressed in robes and furs. Belldavi shuffled up to join them as the gates opened to reveal four horsemen, all riding the longhaired horses bred by those that live within and around the mountains of Lunnak. The lead woman wore the thick grey robes of the monastery, her face broad and hardened by the trek. She had guided the other three men up the mountain, and Belldavi felt a modicum of dread when she recognized the riders.

Two of the riders wore similar uniforms, blackened half-plate over heavy leathers and furs. They each wore a purple tunic, with a white owl perched on a longsword shown proudly. One was unmistakably a tiefling with his ram-like horns protruding from his full helmet. His slender look-alike bore no immediate identifiers of what they were. What mattered is that they were members of the Royal Guard, flanking their charge as the party moved forward. Their charge was bundled in furs, similar to Belldavi, wearing a black woolen tunic underneath. He didn’t bear weapons or armour like his guards, but instead bore an air of authority. Spine straight, face sternly looking ahead. His beard was black and ran down his chest, and his skin was as green as dusk in a rampant forest.

Just like Suzie’s.

Out of reflex, Belldavi knelt as Prince Gregory Templemount brought his steed forward to the waiting Hidego, who stood stoically to the approaching royal party. Several lay-persons in the gathered crowd also knelt. The monks stayed standing with their elder. The small procession finally stopped, allowing for the four riders to dismount. The guiding monk gathered the reins of the beasts while the other threes’ boots crunched in the small amount of layered snow towards Hidego. The half-orc stopped two feet in front of her, looked straight into her eyes. Then bowed.

“Thank you for allowing us into your monastery, Elder Hidego,” Gregory’s smooth, sadly familiar baritone said. “Especially when we were unexpected.”

Belldavi snuck a look to the old monk, who merely nodded with a slightly arched eyebrow. “I wouldn’t let many who call for shelter stay outside these walls. You and your guards are welcome to stay here. However, I fear it may be awhile until you leave.”

The prince straightened from his small bow to look at Hidego with confusion. “I’m sorry, Elder? What do you mean?”

She replied with a gesture to the sky. As if to punctuate it, a sudden gust blew into the compound, bringing in a fresh dusting of snow. Belldavi clasped her furs tighter, as did the prince and most of the crowd. She could only imagine what Susanna was going through.

“A storm approaches soon. You will not be able to outrun it even if you left immediately. It is best if you stay here for tonight. Perhaps two nights.”

“Are you certain, Elder?” Gregory looked with incredulousness. Then, with resignation as Hidego’s stern glare told him his answer. He nodded in resignation.

“Very well,” he grunted, and Belldavi’s heart lurched. Two nights? In this frozen hellhole? With him?!

“We hope to leave sooner rather than later, of course, with my sister in tow,” he continued. “Where is Susanna?”

Hidego turned and gestured to the struggling half-orc princess, staring more intensely into the ground, fangs bared as she breathed. She was sweating profusely, and Belldavi could see as she stood from her kneeling that some of it was starting to freeze. The elf turned back to Gregory, who only nodded.

“Understood,” he grunted. “I wish to speak with her soon… she is the main reason for my visit.”

“When she is done, you can speak with her as you see fit,” Hidego said. “In the meantime, it is almost time for the midday meal. You and your guards will be shown to your chambers before then.”

Gregory gave another small bow, his guards following suit. “Thank you again, Elder Hidego.”

Hidego nodded curtly, then started walking towards the collection of squat stone huts. Belldavi turned her gaze from the meeting back to her lover. Gods, if only she could trade spaces with Susanna, let her deal with the inevitable meeting with this-

“Lady Belldavi?”

The elf smothered her snarl, put on a polite face, and turned around again. Prince Gregory stood before her, taller than her like most of the Templemount family, but not by much. He was… wider than most from the royal family, too. Having pursued arcane knowledge rather than martial prowess, Gregory had let the royal lifestyle get to his gut. The cloaks and beard hid most of it, but Belldavi had been in the much warmer palace enough times to know the young wizard had a few extra stones worth.

“Ah, Your Highness,” Belldavi said, giving her best curtsy despite the furs. Gregory waved a hand in dismissal.

“Please, Belldavi, call me Gregory. No need to curtsy. However, if I may?” The prince let out his hand, open and palm up. Belldavi grimaced internally, but put on a slight smile as she gently placed her slender, fair-skinned hand in his giant green one. He raised her proffered hand to his lips, placing a tender kiss on the back before letting go. It took a monumental effort to not snap her hand back into her furs.

“While my message is for my sister, Lady Belldavi,” Gregory said, “I volunteered to deliver it that I could see you, perchance chat. It has been far too long since we’ve been together.”

“Agreed, Gregory,” the elf muttered, making a show of burying herself into her furs. “It has been a long time since we’ve seen each other. And while I am glad to see you safely here, may I suggest not having this conversation where the wind can bite? I must get ready for the meal, and you have yet to change from your traveling clothes.”

“Oh, certainly,” the prince nodded. “Please, allow me to escort you to-”

“No, Your Highness,” Belldavi interrupted, bowing slightly as she began to step away. “While I appreciate your offer, you wouldn’t be able to join us for the midday meal in time. I must be on my way. See you in the hall!”

With that, she turned and shuffled quickly back towards her quarters, leaving the persistent love-sick puppy behind. Twenty years and he still hadn’t got the hint. Damn it all to the Hells. Now she had to spend at least two days running away from him. As she shuffled past Susanna, they managed to share a glance. That glance.

Good. Belldavi would also need to use her lover’s embrace tonight.


	3. Chapter 3

She always smelled good.

It didn’t matter if it was after she practiced, after sex, after hours of nothing but cuddling in each other’s embrace. Belldavi always found comfort in Susanna’s scent. Her essence. The feeling of being safe.

She smiled and nestled herself into Susanna’s shoulder again, reaching across her half-orc’s bare chest and holding her close. Suzie responded wordlessly, squeezing her elf with the arm she had under her. The two enjoyed a brief moment of joyous, silent acknowledgement of their affections before settling again in their sleeping furs. Candles burned low in their stone dormitory, joining the smoldering embers in the fireplace to give a pleasantly dim glow. The pair reveled in the warmth of the fire and each other. Lost in this moment, wishing for nothing more.

But the arrival of Gregory and his as yet given missive still hung as an oppressive cloud. It eventually banished the afterglow, and Susanna broke the silence.

“Wonder what brought him here that Mother couldn’t couldn’t just send with magic,” she muttered. “It’s not like Gregory doesn’t have the ability to send her official missive through the void.”

Belldavi frowned. “Well he obviously wanted to try and flirt with me again.”

“You think my brother the bookworm would travel across the breadth of Lunnak and up the Worldspine just to be turned down by you?”

She lifted her head to look into Susanna’s dark eyes. The half-orc chuckled at Belldavi’s annoyed expression.

“Okay, fair enough,” she conceded. “He still hasn’t gotten the damn hint, has he?”

“No, he hasn’t,” Belldavi grumbled, nestling back into Susanna’s shoulder. “For being such an intelligent wizard, he really can’t pick up how much I avoid him. I wish he’d do the ‘proper’ thing and ask my father permission to court me. Then he’d get a straight answer.”

“Which is?”

“No way in Dayereth’s dark chambers.”

Suzie chuckled. “Well, that’s as straight an answer as I’ve heard.”

“Yep. Father keeps going on and on about how he wants me to marry some scion from the Isle. As if the Isle was ever important to him or the family.”

“You pray to the same god, don’t you?”

“My family sailed across the Shining Sea just over a millennium ago before the temple gained true authority over Cellvari… we pay lip-service at best.”

Susanna grunted, but said nothing else. Belldavi capitalized on the silence, caressing her lover’s arm with the hand that lay across the half-orcs hardened chest. Her slender fingers began to glide across the princess’ forest green skin, tracing the creases of the warrior’s well chiselled physique. The elf bit her lip as she did so. She could feel her cheeks flush once more. Her hand flattened and rest on the half-orc’s steely stomach, but before Belldavi could slide her hands up to a firm breast, Susanna chuckled. The elf raised her head, eyebrows furrowed.

“What?” she asked flatly.

“I just… his fixation on you must be so absolute. He doesn’t seem to notice all of the suitors he has knocking on his door.”

“Ugh, I know,” Belldavi grunted. “His idea of love comes from fairy tales in the College’s library. Still, if he was so smart he would have thought about… well, about…”

Belldavi looked down, frowning. Susanna furrowed her own brows in question.

“About what?”

“I… was going to mention that he… we wouldn’t… he has forgotten the differences in our lifespans.”

Susanna’s eyes also fell. “He has, hasn’t he?”

Belldavi felt her lover’s chest rise and fall with a heavy sigh. She responded by putting her head back onto the princess’ chest. There, they sat in silence as a new cloud of foreboding loomed over them.

She wished she hadn’t pointed out the flaw of Gregory’s pursuit. They had fallen into the same trap. It was always there. The nagging, glaring fact that haunted the fires of their lust. Belldavi, despite having seen fifty winters, looked the part of one who’d seen twenty. Susanna had only witnessed eighteen. With her exercises and training, she would most likely live a long life, but at most she would die with a tally of eighty winters.

Belldavi would, if Amun-Riiv was kind, live up to seven centuries.

These moments... precious moments of sharing each other’s pleasure, losing themselves in lust, whispering sweet nothings to each other on month long getaways… the pair knew they would end sooner rather than they wanted to acknowledge. Both for reasons of nobility and terminal.

And Belldavi had brought that weighted thought to the front of both their minds. What afterglow was left had deserted entirely. To even think something so wonderful could end was anathema to her. In all her years she hadn’t met anyone with a kinder soul. Susanna was gruff at times, but she focused her frustrations to the task of bettering herself, making sure her anger never spilled to others around her. She cared for her family. The commoners praised her. Belldavi… loved her. Deeply. To live long enough to see this treasured star -  _ her _ star - fade into darkness was a thought she hated to bear.

The elf felt Susanna’s lips place a gentle kiss on her forehead, her tusks caressing her skin. She looked up. The half-orc gave her a somber grin.

“My brother is ridiculous,” she whispered. “But I’m sure he’ll learn the true obstacle in his path.”

“Which is?” Belldavi asked.

“His lack of martial skill. If he wants to take you away from me, he’ll have to get much better at swordplay.”

The smiled wide smiles at each other, and the two lovers kissed. That point of separation was far away. It was the present moment that mattered. Belldavi knew that whatever caused them to inevitably part ways, it wouldn’t happen immediately.

-

“Immediately?!”

Belldavi gripped her clay mug tighter as Susanna’s outburst rang in the communal longhouse. Several monks and lay persons that had lingered after dinner turned to see what the commotion was, witnessing the half-orc woman bolting straight out of her seat in shocked anger. Gregory sat across the table from her, and calmly raised a placating hand.

“Suzie, calm yourself. We’re in a public area.”

The princess pursed her lips, took a long breath through her nose, then sat on her sturdy wooden stool. She grabbed her own mug full of hot broth, bringing it to her lips.

“Brother,” she half-growled. “Please tell me this is a joke.”

Gregory shook his bearded head. “I’m afraid it’s not. Mother has sent the reply through the College’s sending crystals. King Andros received the message instantly.”

Belldavi’s eyes widened. No, this couldn’t be. Surely the Queen wouldn’t just sell her daughter to a foreign prince without her consent. Not  _ this _ Queen.

“Bullshit,” Susanna growled. “I want it in writing or I’m not leaving this mountain. I agreed with mother to-”

She stopped as Gregory’s hand slid into the wide sleeve of his robe and retrieved two scrolls. Both had wax seals. He placed them on the heavy wooden table, seals facing up. One was the royal crest; a crowned owl perched on a semi-circle hill. The other was a long boat with three square-rigged sails. Belldavi’s eyes widened when she saw her family’s crest.

“You have a missive for both of us?” Belldavi whispered. “You could have told me earlier!”

“Well, my Lady, you seemed rather preoccupied. I didn’t wish to bother you.”

Belldavi reached out and snatched the scroll with her family’s crest. “Who gave you this?”

Gregory raised his eyebrows, incredulous. “Well, your father bid me give you-”

“You should have led with this when I saw you this morning, Your Highness,” Belldavi frowned. “Your flattery can wait for business.”

Ignoring Gregory blushing across the table, she rapidly broke the wax seal and unfurled the scroll. It was written in High Cellvari, with her father’s characteristic flowing runes. First he sent his best wishes, hoping his daughter wasn’t freezing, her brother had decided to go off and join the Skanooyan Guard that he may liberate the Isle, and Belldavi would join him to-

Wait. Join? Belldavi did a double take and reread the passage.

_ \- and it is my thought, dearest Belldavi, that you will join your brother Hemdril on his pilgrimage to Skanooya. There, you will learn more of our heritage and people than I could ever teach you. You will learn to fight with the weapons of the great paladins of the Temple. As you go through your education, I will begin preparations in having you married to Gendorian Arleai, scion of the great Arleai family. _

_ I understand you have yet to leave the century of your youth, but these things take time in the old ways, and I intend to follow them as my grandfather once did. The Jodele and Arleai family combined will be able to finally push back the- _

She read it again. Then again, faster. This couldn’t be happening. Not only was Susanna supposedly being sent off to a hostile kingdom two months south on the Shining Sea, but her father wanted her to marry the Paladin Prince? It didn’t matter he was the rightful ruler of the Temple that once ruled over the Cellvari Isle, he was still the heir to a dying house on a withered island. This is all to gain the Jodele line prestige, nothing more. Belldavi looked to her lover, who in turn looked up from her letter with a disgruntled glare.

“It’s true,” Susanna grunted. “My mother has decided to use me as a pawn to bury the hatchet between Lunnak and the Kingdom of Hellrano. I’m to marry King Andros’ heir, Georgios.”

“My father wants to send me to the Isle,” Belldavi whispered.

Susanna’s expression widened. “The Isle? What for! The only things there are vampires and orcs!”

Belldavi plopped the scroll onto the table in resignation. “He wants me to ‘learn more of our heritage and people.’ He doesn’t care in the slightest about our heritage. What he really wants is to groom me for… well… marriage.”

Gregory and Susanna asked in unison, “With whom?”

“Gendorian Arleai, heir to the Last Diocese of the Isle.”

Gregory’s eyes looked to the table in disbelief. “The Paladin Prince himself… That is... quite a match, my Lady. I’m sure your father-”

“Shut up, Gregory!” Belldavi snapped, thrusting up from her stool with the scroll in hand. She stormed towards the door of the longhouse, throwing the scroll into the great fire that heated the meal hall as she went. The elf rampaged through the heavy snow that had gathered from the storm, across the courtyard, into the stone tenement, up the stairs and into the dormitory. There, she screamed, cursed, stamped on the ground, then began to build a fire in the hearth as she fumed.

Dayereth take her father! Belldavi had followed every command, done every lesson, tried to placate him by becoming a stewardly elf like him, and he still had the desire to control every facet of her life. Why!? Just because he was the patriarch and she was his daughter? Hemdril got to be a warrior like he wanted! Kydal was already setting up trade relations with the Zhyan’s new colonies! The legacy was set! Why did _she_ have to learn how to be a good Cellvari elf and marry some holy prince!? Couldn’t they just have married Hemdril off to an Arleai daughter? Why _her?!_

The door unlatched and swung open. Belldavi whipped around to see the welcome, green skinned frame of Susanna. She rushed over and wrapped her arms around her lover’s waist, squeezing tightly. Suzie’s arms wrapped around the elf’s slender body in turn. They stood there, motionless, drinking in each other’s essence like lost wanderers in the desert finding an oasis. Belldavi could feel tears escaping her eyes, and she buried her face into Susanna’s chest as she tried to stifle the coming sobs.

“I know, love,” Susanna whispered. “I know. I’m not happy about this either.”

Belldavi sniffed. “You don’t sound like it.”

“Oh, I am furious, trust me,” the half-orc replied. “I’m not happy that the Queen has miraculously decided to make peace with the House of Xora through marriage… and that I’m the one being married off without my consent or knowledge. This is against what Mother and I discussed years ago when I came of age, as well. I wanted to become the family’s Honoured Sword, seeing as how I’m only seventh in line to the throne, anyway. I never wanted to be part of royal goings on.

“And now I’m to wed a member of my House’s sworn enemy to bring about peace. Like that will happen.”

Susanna pulled Belldavi away from her chest, and the elf looked into her dark brown eyes. What she saw crushed her heart. There was sadness there. Never before had she saw sadness in the young orc’s eyes. Gazing into her lover’s raw grief, Belldavi bit her lip to suppress her sobs. She felt a calloused hand on her cheek, a thumb starting to wipe away the tears falling down her cheek.

“But right now,” Suzie whispered. “That doesn’t matter. Right now, you are what matters to me.”

Belldavi gulped. Brought her hands around and gripped the princess’ robes in quiet desperation. “Please,” she breathed. “Please, love… let’s just run. Run away and never come back. No Templemounts, No Jodeles, no other fucking nobles and their games.”

“Where would we go, love?” Susanna’s smile was tinged with the sorrow that pooled in her eyes.

“Qenathi, Oonlash, Vanezzi… by the Godkeeper, we could take part of a voyage to the new continent.”

“The Dragon Lands?” Susanna chuckled, bringing her elven love once again in a tight embrace. “That does sound intriguing. I’ve been curious about them since they were discovered.”

“Let’s go there, then,” Belldavi said, her voice shaking with desperation and grief. “We can just board a voyage over. We can bribe anyone who asks us questions, sail over, start a whole new life. We won’t have to deal with our families in any way! We’ll-”

“Bells.”

Belldavi looked up again to meet her lover’s sorrowful eyes.

“Unless we intend to live in a lead box for the rest of our lives,” Susanna sighed, “my family will be able to find us no matter what. Gregory and his friends at the College can scry to find us if we were to run away even as far as the Dragon Lands.”

She thrust herself out of Susanna’s arms and put her hands to her face in frustration. “Gods damn it! Why does your brother have to be such a competent wizard!?”

Susanna shrugged. “Runs in the family, love.”

Belldavi turned back to the unlit hearth, staring at the wood that had been set to heat the room. She bent down to start striking the flint to the tinder at its center. She got a few strikes in when she felt Susanna’s calloused hand start rubbing her right ear. The wave of pleasure went through her entire body, and she let out an involuntary moan. She sensed the half-orc kneel down behind her, pressing her toned body against Bells’ own lithe one. Small tusks brushed against the back and side of her neck and Suzie began to plant a line of kisses across. Her hands glided down from the elf’s shoulders down to her hands, and as the princess kissed her lover’s cheek, she took the flint from her. With one measured strike, the sparks lit up the tinder, and a fire began to rise in the hearth.

“Listen, love,” Susanna whispered in Belldavi’s long, slender ear. “We can still fight this. Compromise, even. This does not need to be the end of us.”

Her hands put down the pieces of flint, placing them on Belldavi’s thighs and sliding up. Belldavi sighed.

“I don’t want to lose you, Suzie,” she whimpered.

“You never will, Bells,” the half-orc growled. Belldavi turned her head, receiving a kiss. A deep, desperate kiss. One filled with the need to cling onto everything dear. Belldavi responded by lunging forwards and clawing at Susanna’s robes, trying to make them as close as possible. The half-orc placed her hands on her back and buttox, lifting her up from the cold floor, walking her to the pallet of sleeping furs and laying her upon them.

There, Belldavi felt the comforting weight of her lover on top of her, enveloping the elf with her body and her love. She wrapped her arms around the half-orc as they kissed, lips barely moving a centimeter apart as they gasped for air from the intensity. Susanna suddenly rose, the sadness in her eyes replaced with the hunger Belldavi craved. The princess untied the cord that held her robes together, then let them slide down to the floor, revealing her naked chest, her chiseled stomach, all without breaking eye contact.

Belldavi rose to meet Susanna in another kiss, similarly struggling to rid herself of her robe and tunic. Her hands could barely function. She shook with lust, with need. Finally, she grabbed onto the bottom of her tunic, breaking from Susanna’s kiss to lift it off and have the half-orc do with her body as she pleased.

_ Knock knock _ .

The pair of them looked at each other with annoyance, then at the door.

_ Knock knock _ .

“Yes?” Belldavi exclaimed, not even trying to hide her annoyance.

“Beg pardon, my Lady,” came the familiar drawl of the prince. “I wanted to check in with you and see that you were alright.”

“Yes, Gregory, I’m fine,” Belldavi sighed. “Thank you. Have a wonderful night.”

“Well, my Lady Belldavi,” he droned on, “I had hoped to chat with you and discuss-”

As he spoke, Susanna walked over to the door in her half-naked glory. Belldavi’s eyes widened, and before she could shout a warning, Susanna swung the door open, hand on hip. Gregory stood outside with a bottle of spirits and two metal cups, all bundled in his own winter robes. He stopped in mid sentence, face now wide with shock. He tried to form words. He never got the chance.

“Have a wonderful night, brother,” Susanna said flatly. She then shut the door on the prince’s stunned face. His sister turned back to face Belldavi, a smirk on her face. Bells was also in shock, hands covering her mouth.

“There,” Susanna chuckled. “That takes care of that.”

“By the gods, take me now,” was all Belldavi replied. Susanna bared a vicious grin, and happily obliged.


	4. Chapter 4

Two days of avoiding Gregory in isolation melded with two days of travel with him and his guards. Two days of traveling down the craggy mountainside, following the severe looking guide on the narrow, secret passage that snaked between the monastery and the base camp. Two days of frost. Of constant chill.

And  _ not _ being flirted with by the wizard.

Belldavi gave thanks to whatever god was listening that Susanna had shocked him into silence. It was a wonder they hadn’t done it sooner.

After the princess had thoroughly taken the merchant’s daughter, they had to discuss their strategy. The first option was to have Susanna go to her mother and play on Templemount “honour.” It was an open secret that the Templemount dynasty was built on lies, intrigue, blackmail, and the backing of a criminal syndicate ran by the bastards of the house. The Black Hill Templemounts became royalty by crowning themselves the monarch and dissolving the old noble republic. Some supported the new regime through marriage ties. Others through secrets. Those few that refused had disappeared. Honour was only ever a benevolent word that justified most of the house’s decisions.

But if there was one virtue that they held dear, it was the importance of familial bonds. Family ultimately made the royal house strong. Brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, they all looked out for their fellow Templemounts. And if any were to cross them, you would beg to have Dayereth’s wicked knives flense you instead. Their rage was immense, their vengeance absolute.

Which made this marriage with the House of Xora so out of place. And exploitable. Hopefully.

It was a story Susanna had told Belldavi multiple times. Her ancestor, Reginald Templemount, had cleared out the modern Black Hills estate of a witch and her minions with his adventuring cohorts. One of them was his lover, the tiefling Emma Xora. According to the story, he proposed to her. She refused and “ran off on childish expeditions” for a decade. Meanwhile, the newly made Earl of Black Hills married another. She later returned and, in spite, murdered his wife and mother to his heir. Reginald later found out, and decreed that the treacherous tiefling and her kin held a deathmark. Should they trespass on Templemount lands, no quarter would be given.

Emma left and became the new Queen of Hellrano, as was her birthright. Soon after, Macon Templemount, first Sword of the House and the greatest swordsmen in history - according to Susanna, anyway - sought out the Queen of that tropical isle and decapitated her.

Thus began the generational feud, the ruling houses of the two nations passing laws to block and undermine the other. Neutral ports became battlegrounds. Brawls in seedy inns across the world led to death on both sides.

“So,” Susanna had said that night. “I go to my mother and play on that. Drive in that deep grudge to make her cut it off. Why accept a proposal from those golden-eyed bastards?”

“I hear you,” Belldavi had replied. “But… her Majesty utilized the College of Wizards to send an immediate response. She seems pretty set on the matter.”

“She can just as easily cancel it. It’s only been a week and a few days. By the time we arrive back in Gearne, it will have only been a fortnight since she replied. She’s the fucking Queen of Lunnak! She can do whatever she wants!”

“Then why did she say yes?”

Susanna couldn’t answer then… but Belldavi could.

“Trade.”

“Trade?”

“Trade. My father and the other merchant nobles have been pressuring the Crown to lift the ban on trading with Hellrano. To get anything from Oonlash we need to go through Vanezzi traders or in Qenathi ports at inflated prices. The math says to accept and make peace. King Andros and Her Majesty are probably in the midst of negotiations, deciding tariff levels, licenses, goods to be bought and sold... huh."

"'Huh' what?"

"If their Majesties are doing what I think they're doing, I think we can use that to have us stay together."

"How so?"

"I'll need to go to my father and convince him that this... fascination with the old Elven homeland is a wasted effort. If anyone is going to retake the Isle from the clutches of the Blood Court, it's going to be those greedy lizards from Vanezzi and their mercenaries. No, this new peace between Lunnak and Hellrano means we need to start cutting in and exploiting the lifted ban. House Jodele needs to lead the charge. And who better to lead this venture than family?"

Susanna had grinned. "Oh, so you'll try to rule over your own little branch of the Jodele fortune in Hellrano... and it'd be so nice to invite you to, say, the occasional royal ball?"

"I would hope so, your Majesty."

"Don't you start. I haven't been married yet... I'm still not keen on that to begin with."

They discussed a few more plans - entertaining the idea of running to the chaotic lands of ruined Cenora, to the wild country of Iricosh, or the recently discovered Dragon Lands again. Perhaps even going to the isolated dwarf holds of the World Spine. As the days and nights went by, Belldavi refused to discuss anything else, or even acknowledge the need to plan ahead afterwards. The immediate future is what mattered. No hypotheticals or unfortunate, long-term truths. Susanna seemed pleased to keep it that way. As the nights of isolation and days of travel wore on, it seemed Belldavi's solution was the best one available.

So now the elf just needed to craft a speech convincing enough to tell her quad-centenarian father to stop this nonsensical Grand Tour plan. What had gotten into him? This sudden interest of marrying her off to the Gendorian Arleai was... strange, to say the least. The Jodeles had detached themselves from the elven homeland a millennium ago, specifically to run from the growing power of the Temple. They did perfectly well laying down the financial bedrock on which Gearne would grow and become the capital of Lunnak. Her grandfather and father had collectively lived throughout all of the nation's history, and only got involved with the Cellvari Isle during the dreaded Sunless Decade, when a cult of the murder god Dayereth rose into power as unholy, blood drinking monsters and drove away most of Amun-Riiv's faithful. Even then, her family only took in refugees. They hadn't been involved with the last coastal stronghold of the Temple and their desperate crusade except in a mercantile sense.

In a very real sense, the Jodele family was more Lunnakian than elven. But now Belldavi was to be wed to the ruling priest's son under the 'old ways?' No... there had to be more to it than that. There had to be more to this then some sort of cultural revival in her father's soul. There was money in this. She just couldn't see it yet.

"Hold, My Lady."

Belldavi shook herself from her thoughts and glanced left to her addressee. It was one of the guards. The tiefling. His right hand was held out in a stopping gesture. The elf readjusted her cloak and started looking around the pine forest they had entered. They were almost to the base camp the monks maintained to stable their mountain-breed horses and house the guides. It was getting dark, and the canopy of needles above them was thick enough to choke what little sunlight there was. Thankfully, Belldavi's elven eyes allowed her to see in the dim light, and she could see the party around her starting to prepare for an unseen enemy.

"What is it, guardsman?" Belldavi asked.

"I don't know, My Lady," he whispered. "But the monk has drawn her sword."

Sure enough, their guide had trotted her shaggy horse ahead, blade drawn and held at the ready. The two royal guardsmen followed suit, pulling their longswords and guiding their horses to be next to Gregory and Susanna. Susanna had also drawn her blade, coolly drawing her gaze across the open forest. The wizard was not so calm, whipping his head to the left and right like a caged animal. Belldavi shared his panic, having never truly been in a fight. Still, she reached down to her waist and unsheathed her dagger.

"What did you see, Sister?" Susanna called out. The guide didn't turn around, but kept sweeping the needle-strewn ground with her discerning glare.

“Movement on our left flank,” she uttered, the point of her blade gesturing in the noted direction. “But I am wary we are surrounded.”

“Understood. We need to-”

There was a crack of thunder, and the monk’s head shattered into jagged pieces. Her body flew off the beast of burden, which trumpeted in shock. The rest of the party’s animals joined in frantic snorts and distressed neighs. Belldavi tried to keep her steed steady. The reins couldn’t pull any tighter, stop jerking around so much!

“They’re coming!” cried one of the guards, and Belldavi glanced up. From behind trees and under pine-covered mats, a dozen or so humanoid figures burst out and jolted towards the travelers. They were… strange! Like the dragonborn of the south but with longer snouts, thicker tails, and dressed in the barest of rags. Their jagged maws snarled and dripped with saliva, their gnarled claws bearing long talons or wielding simple metal rods. Their alien eyes burned with raw emotions, but what they were Belldavi did not wish to discern. She looked to her compatriots as she spurred her steed onward.

“Go, Your Highnesses!” barked a guard. They had both dismounted from their frightened steeds, holding their longswords with both hands and meeting the assailants head on. Belldavi glanced to Susanna. The princess had already led her horse to the side of the elf.

“Come on, Suzie!” she said over the clash of metal.

“But the guards-”

“Are doing their jobs. Move!”

Susanna’s flat hand smacked the backside of Belldavi’s horse. The beast trumpeted and jolted to a gallop. The elf gritted her teeth as she barely held on with her legs, bear hugging the neck of the creature in desperation. She couldn’t look to see if the Templemounts were following her. All she could do was see the dark pine forest zoom by her and feel the rhythmic thumping of the horse’s hooves against the needle strewn path.

Then there was another crack of thunder.

For a brief moment, Belldavi was flying as her steed collapsed to the ground with painful screeching. Then she, too, cried in agony as she met the earth in an uncontrolled roll. Breath left her body as she impacted the ground, and as she finished tumbling into a pile of decaying pine needles, she desperately sucked what air she could back into her taxed lungs.

“Bells!” she heard her lover cry, but distantly and with horrid ringing. She opened her eyes, saw two riders on shaggy horses come to her. One of them - Susanna, she thought - got off her horse and rushed to her, throwing her blade to the ground. The other turned around and lifted a hand glowing with red flame. As he - Gregory, the wizard, that’s right - tossed a ball of flame towards their pursuers, Susanna came to Belldavi’s side.

“Come on, Bells,” Susanna said. “Time to get up. They’re gaining on us.”

Belldavi grunted affirmation, and tried to wrap her arm around the half-orc’s broad shoulders. Just as she felt the warm, strong, safe arms of her lover wrap around her back, the elf heard a click. And a boot crunching needles underfoot.

“You be not thinking, slave-kin, of lifting your being up.”

It was… Elvish? Belldavi’s eyes widened in surprise, and slowly turned where she sat to the source. The first thing she noted, of course, was what looked to be a glaive pointed directly at Susanna. Although, it wasn’t a glaive. It was a… musket? Here? Impossible, only the Royal College had any sort of working model of such a radically new piece of weaponry. Belldavi had only seen the prototypes once. And yet, what this half-elf wielded bore a strong resemblance to the weapons shown at that demonstration only years before.

He also wore a uniform she was not aware of, wearing nearly all black garments and breastplate. A singular dark blue sash was tied to his waist. The only indicator he was a half-elf other than his language were his slightly pointed ears jutting out of a black helmet with a grill mouthpiece and narrow slits. He gestured again with his musket-glaive.

“Hearing me, slave-kin? Let her be and hands raise!”

Susanna didn’t move. Belldavi could sense the tension in her arms.

“Hands raise, slave-kin! Let her be and hands raise or by Empress I will bleed you!”

Belldavi leaned into the half-orc’s ear.

“He wants you to let me go, I think, and raise your hands into the air.”

“Like hell,” Belldavi growled.

“Bleed, slave-!” the assailant blurted, but Susanna was quicker. Her hand rushed forward and swatted the musket barrel away with the back of her hand. It discharged, and Belldavi’s ears started ringing once again from the eruption. Needles exploded into the air from where it pointed. Belldavi couldn’t help but scream. The half-orc, however, had grabbed her sword where she had left it on the ground. Impossibly fast, it pierced through the air and then under the half-elf’s breastplate, cleanly skewering him. The assailant gargled something in his strange Elvish dialect as the musket-glaive dropped to the ground from his dying grasp. He soon joined his weapon as Susanna pulled her curved sword out of his gut.

“Wend not, slave-kin!” came an Elvish shout behind them. Belldavi and Susanna turned to the main path. There, four more darkly armoured figures had gathered around the bleeding corpses of the last remaining horses. Two held musket-glaives like their recently fallen comrade, blades pointed to a Gregory that lay groaning on the ground. Another taller half-elf held a longer musket, some sort of tube attached to the top of the barrel. There was no blade. It was aimed at the pair of them. The last one wielded a wicked longsword that curved back, ending in a hooked barb. In their other hand looked to be a hand crossbow, also pointed to them.

“Wend not, slave-kin,” the leader repeated. “You be deemed too precious to bleed, but I will bleed you should I be harkened not.”

“I… uh… Belldavi, can you understand what he’s saying,” Susanna whispered.

“Mostly,” Belldavi replied, “But the dialect is so jumbled. I think he wants us to surrender.”

Susanna snarled. “I thought as much.”

“Fellow, can you lift up your being?”

Belldavi’s eyebrows furrowed. She pointed an inquisitive finger to her chest.

“Are you speaking to me?” she said in Elvish, weakly. Her ribcage ached with the effort of calling out to their assailants. The leader and the half-elf wielding the elongated musket made a quick glance at each other.

“Yes, fellow,” he said, after a second. “I give words to you, though your tongue sounds strange as it walks. Can you lift up your being?”

Belldavi grunted as she sat up in the pile of decaying needles, then cried in agony as she tried to put weight on her left hand.

“Bells!” Susanna shouted, reaching down to the elf. Then she too shouted in rage-filled pain as a bolt from the leader’s weapon lodged into her arm.

“Wend not, slave-kin!” the leader repeated. Belldavi looked up to see the leader and the taller half-elf run towards the half-orc at a jog. Susanna roared, bringing her sword arm to bear. However, the roar petered out suddenly, and the warrior princess’ feet stumbled a few steps forward in a drunken charge before she splatted onto the ground.

“Suzie, NO!” Belldavi’s screamed in fresh agony. She rolled to her right side, holding her left hand tightly to her chest, and crawled across the pine needles to her lover. Her star. Her knight. Her everything. She couldn’t be dead, she was too strong! It was not possible! They had to be together!

“Come now, Fellow.”

She felt leather gauntlets wrap around her upper arms and lift her up. Belldavi’s aches no longer mattered as she kicked and screamed, throwing decayed plant matter into the air with her frantic movements. Her captor wrapped their arms around her to restrain her, and shooting pain flowed through her wrist as the fracture worsened with their tight embrace. She wailed, bawled, cursed, screeched, everything she could do to call for help or have the outlandish elf unhand her. She needed to see if Susanna was alive. She needed to be with her. If not in life, then in death!

“Let go of me, you bastards!” Belldavi managed to spit. “Let me go or I swear to Amun-Riiv I-”

“Cease,” the leader said, throwing a grey powder into her face. Belldavi breathed it in, started coughing. Gods that was awful! What was that? What did they want with her? Why did she feel so heavy? Her head weighed a stone at least. No, two stones… one per eyelid.

The darkness took her.


	5. Chapter 5

Belldavi’s head felt like all of the Worldspine lay upon it, grinding her skull into paste. She moaned, and lifted her hand to her temple. Tried, at least. A few confused tugs told her she had been bound with metal shackles, her arms held behind her back. Her eyes gradually opened wide. She was horizontal. Yes, laying on a metal floor of some kind. There were bars around her, too, all attached to a metal wall that met the floor on one end.

A cage. Out here in the forest.

There were others in here, too, unconscious and laying on the cold floor of their prison. Half a dozen men and women from what Belldavi could only guess was a nearby village were in here, haphazardly thrown in. She glanced around with her dark vision and saw the familiar plump Gregory, bound and lying on top of an unfortunate villager. She looked again to the left and-

“Susanna!” Belldavi gasped as she saw her lover, crumpled in a corner near her. The elf stumbled on her shackled hands as she got up and crawled to the princess. When she reached her, she pressed her knife ear to Susanna’s chest and listened. She sighed in relief as she heard the half-orc’s heartbeat and felt the gentle rise of her chest as she breathed. Susanna was alive.

“We should have plenty of mana in the crystals to reach the first goblet, Keeper of Men.”

Belldavi whipped her head to look towards the source of the voice. It was hard to pick anything out in the total darkness, but her elven eyes were compensating as best they could to take in the dark forest and its strange occupants. There! Two of the outlandish assailants, fifteen feet away. They were different, though, not the ones that had attacked them on the road. Both were half-elves. One was dressed similar to those that had attacked them on the road. The other was stocky and wearing a leather apron over a uniform similar to his compatriots. Tools of all sorts jutted out of apron pockets. Leather gloved fists rested on his hips. He wore no helmet, but wore what looked to be spectacles held onto his face with a leather thong tied behind his head. He was clean shaven, but the greasy smudges on his face could be confused for a beard at first glance.

“You sure we will crawl far enough afield to reach the first goblet?” the soldier sneered towards his comrade. “I’d hate to have a thirsty beast before we reach a place to feed it. Especially with what your beast carries within.”

“We follow the same hole, we will crawl to the goblet with mana a plenty left,” he replied gruffly.

“Fine, iron tamer,” the soldier growled. “Away to your post. We crawl soon.”

“Aye, Keeper of Men,” the half-elf bowed with a modicum of respect, and the two parted ways. The half-elf started walking towards the cage, reaching behind his head to untie his goggles. Belldavi took the chance as he grumbled by.

“Hey!” she hissed. The half-elf jumped and turned to her. When he lock eyes with her, he grunted.

“Cease, overlander,” he said. “I cannot stand the thought of your tongue walking through my ears for the entire crawl. Keep your tongue seated.”

Belldavi’s eyebrows furrowed as she tried to decipher what his elvish dialect was saying. Were those even words? Keep it simple.

“Who are you?” she asked. The half-elf sneered and pulled a pair of tongs from an apron pocket. He lunged forward and smacked the metal bars of the cage close to Belldavi’s face.

“Sit your tongue down and cease its walking, overlander!” he barked. “Elsewise I will-”

“You will cease your own tongue, iron tamer,” came a voice from behind, “lest my blade gut it from your mouth.”

Belldavi turned to the new speaker, and stifled another scream. It was another half-elf, dressed similar to all the others, but without a helm and wearing a broad red sash across her chest. Her eyes pierced into Belldavi’s soul with their severity, made all the more shocking with their snow-white skin. What she rode on was much more unsettling, as a bat the size of a horse trundled forward on powerful winged arms and wide, dagger length claws. It’s jaw was shut with a metal muzzle, but she could see saliva drool out of its horrid maw and fall in globs to the forest ground. Belldavi rapidly looked back and forth between the beast and its rider. It was difficult deciding which was more intimidating.

The ‘iron tamer’ didn’t cower, but wordlessly pocketed his tongs and turned away from the cage, walking around the metal wall the cage was attached to. The bat-riding woman huffed a satisfied grunt, then looked at Belldavi.

“He is in the right, Fellow,” she said with a calm, sonorous alto. “You should cease your tongue soon. We crawl through the belly of the world, soon, and many dangers lie ahead that would seek to eat your running tongue, as well as your body.”

Belldavi slowly nodded.

“Where are we going?” she asked. The outlander elf raised a thin eyebrow.

“Ysaruu lied not when he told me your words flow strangely as I harken them. Still, at least one overlander’s tongue happens to walk the way of the Empress’ tongue. Has your arm become whole again?”

“I, um,” Belldavi stammered, then grabbed her left wrist behind her. It was fine. So completely fine she had forgotten that it had fractured not too long ago. She looked back to the giant bat rider.

“Yes. My arm has… become whole again.”

“Excellent. It would not suit me well to bring you to the Crone without you whole.”

“Crone?” Belldavi asked. The half-elf smirked.

“The Old Crone, yes! The Empress has need of you.”

“For… for what purpose?” Belldavi gulped. The rider shrugged.

“Not my wonderings to have, Fellow. Merely my orders.”

With that, the rider nudged the giant bat, making it growl as it lumbered forward and out of Belldavi’s sight. She did her best to sit up next to Susanna’s unconscious body and finish getting her bearings. All around her, darkly dressed half-elves patrolled around an encampment that was in the process of being torn down. Fires were recently doused, tents were being folded. More of the terrible hulking bats could be seen, muzzles firmly on dripping maws as the outlanders lashed equipment onto their. Gathered in a huddled area thirty feet away were several dozen of the lizard folk that had originally ambushed them. They all wore tattered rags and a metal circlet around their necks. They sat in concentric circles, their heads bowed to the ground. If she wasn’t mistaken, Belldavi almost thought she saw them quivering.

“Oh, fucking hells.”

She looked down to see Susanna scrunching her face in pain, slowly rising from her slumber.

“Suzie!” Belldavi gasped, resting her head on the half-orc’s chest. Susanna grunted.

“Goodness, Bells,” she grunted out. “My head’s already aching like the Godkeeper used it as an anvil. Be gentle.”

“I’m sorry,” she replied. “I’m just glad you’re alive. I thought I lost you back there.”

“I’m glad to see you too, love… but where are we?”

“We’re still in the forest, but in an encampment and locked in a cage. Gregory’s in here, still unconscious. There are a few commoners as well, also unconscious.”

“Encampment?” Susanna queried, and pulled herself to a sitting position and surveyed the scene around her. Her eyes widened at the site of the monstrous winged beasts of burden.

“Huh,” she whispered. “Those are… terrifying.”

“Oh really?” Belldavi hissed.

“Yes,” Susanna replied. “Which means I think we need to get the fuck out of here. You know where the latch is for this thing?”

“Haven’t checked yet.”

“Godkeeper take me, Suzie, that’s the first thing you do!”

“I was making sure you were alive first!”

“... Alright, that I’ll forgive.”

Belldavi rolled her eyes. Susanna was very goal oriented. They were about to check the bars for hinges and a latch when the elf spotted the bat riding half-elf moving her mount towards the cowering crowd of humanoid lizards. Several other half-elves had grabbed the three beasts of burden by the muzzle and were leading them to the same place.

“Suzie, look!” Belldavi hissed.

They both watched as the reptilians all cowered away from the monsters encroaching on them. The rider deftly swung her leg over her saddle and slid down the flank of her beast, walking to the caged muzzle and unlatching it. The other soldiers did the same with the pack-bats’ mouthguards. Now the creatures’ maws opened wide, and guttural growls reverberated through the pine forest and into Belldavi’s chest. Still, the lizards did not run. Why were they not running?!

“Slave-kin!” the bat riding soldier called out to the frightened crowd. As her voice rang over the growls and gnashing teeth, she raised what looked to be a stone in her hand. “You are all free of your service.”

With a brush of her thumb, the stone glowed a bright orange. As it did so, so did every one of the metal circlets around the lizards’ necks. In one brief, bloody second, each circlet contracted impossibly fast, decapitating several dozen lizard folk simultaneously. Pointed, scaly snouts flew into the air like grisly confetti, joined with spurts of green blood and viscera. Before Belldavi had time to scream, the woman that had just committed a mass execution swiped her thumb across the stone again. It glowed a hideous red.

As did the eyes of the four giant bats gathered around a fresh pile of dead bodies.

With screeching roars, they lunge forth into the gorey mountain, lifting scaly cadavers with their dagger length foreclaws to their jagged maws. Flesh was stripped from bone with terrifying efficiency. Blood splattered onto the furs and wings of the creatures with careless abandon. One bat ripped a lizard in half, jamming a giant lithe tongue into the former slaves open torso and sucking out the offal inside. 

Belldavi finally tore her gaze away when she saw a lizard head cracked like a nut to reach the brains inside. She desperately crawled to the other side of the cage on her knees. She couldn’t bear to look. She could still hear it all!

Her stomach gave protest.

She gagged. 

Then retched.

Her bile shot out of her mouth in primal disgust as she leaned against the bars with her head. She was so dizzy, so faint...

“You’re getting your fluids over my beast, Fellow,” came the garbled grunts of the iron tamer. Belldavi shook herself to see him standing there, arms crossed, expression grim. “What,” he continued, lifting his greasy mouth into a malicious smirk. “Never seen a muzvarg feast before?” The elf only swallowed, pushing off the bars with her forehead and trying to maintain balance on her knees.

“What,” she said, gulping down another rush of sickness, “do you mean by beast?”

“My metal beast,” the iron tamer said. “You’re on its back even now. Once the muzvargs are done feasting, we’ll start the crawl through the belly of the world. Stay sitting as it crawls, Fellow.”

“Why?” Belldavi asked. The half-elf sighed with a guttural groan.

“Edicts from the Old Crone state you come back whole, unblemished.”

“Why?” she asked again. The iron tamer’s goggles hid his eyes, but the elf could tell he was rolling them.

“You’re a Fellow from the overland,” he said flatly. Before Belldavi could ask anymore questions, he turned and stomped his way out of sight. She gulped down one more surge of sickness as she heard the last sounds of bones crunching and flesh ripping. She dared not turn to the carnage. Instead, she felt Susanna shuffle in behind her.

“I… um… think it’s best we stay here,” Susanna said. Belldavi glanced at her lover’s face. The half-orc was trying to hide it, but her face was fixed in a horrified expression. That, in turn, curdled her blood. She had never seen her lover afraid of anything before. She had always thought the princess would be invincible, unflappable in the face of any terror. But those… things. They had cowed the brave woman Belldavi knew. If she believed it was time to stay, the elf believed her.

“Susanna?” she whispered. The princess looked into her eyes.

“Whatever happens,” Belldavi continued, “stay with me… they called you ‘slave-kin’ back when they captured you. They called those lizardmen the same thing before...  _ that _ happened.”

“Great,” Susanna grunted. “I’m bat food.”

“I won’t let them take you, Suzie,” she replied, gazing directly into the princess’ eyes. It was hard to see her through the blur of tears that had welled up. Susanna gazed back, tears of her own beginning to fall.

“Whatever happens,” Susanna said. “I will protect you. We’ll get out of here somehow… Maybe if we wake up Gregory, we can-”

“Time to crawl, Fellows!” came the shout, and the world began to shake around them and the rest of the captives. The cage vibrated, then lifted from the ground with enough force to make the pair of them stumble from their kneeling positions. Loud humming and muffled thuds came from either side of the cage. After six consecutive thumps, the cage lowered again, then began to lumber forward. When Belldavi finally reclaimed her balance, she saw six smooth, metallic, arthropodic legs sprouting out from under their prison, three on each side. They walked forward like a monstrous insect, traversing the forest ground with minimum lurching and swaying.

The movement of the cage finally roused Gregory and several of the other villagers. As the wizard came to, he looked around with bewildered amazement.

“Where in Dayereth’s blasted hell are we?” he grunted, trying to sit up despite his bound hands.

Susanna and Belldavi exchanged glances. Then, they looked back to Gregory.

“Someplace worse,” they replied.


End file.
